Map Editing - Satellite image background

When a map is in edit mode, there is a satellite image of the area on which the map features are placed.

How often is this image updated?

Alex

It depends on the image provider and the area that you look at. They are not often changed, maybe not in years.

To give an example, I guesstimate that with so many providers (Bing, Geoportal.gov.pl, Esri, Mapbox, DigitalGlobe) major Polish metropolitan areas have a fresh aerial/sat image taken every 2-3 years and most rural areas reaching 5 years or better.

Sparsely populated (and non-Western) countries may not get such frequent updates.

The Bing satellite image of Alnwick is taken in March 2017. Here at my Place its from 2013. So don’t wait for new updates - it might take a while.

When using the iD editor Press [ B] to check out other available images.